Dr. Andrew Siemion

Dr. Andrew Siemion received his PhD in Astrophysics from UC Berkeley in 2012 and now holds joint post-doctoral appointments at UC Berkeley, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) and Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands.

Dr. Siemion’s research interests include studies of high energy time-variable celestial phenomena, astronomical instrumentation and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).

Dr. Gregory Matloff

Dr. Gregory L. Matloff, emeritus associate and adjunct associate professor of physics at New York City College of Technology (NYCCT), has coordinated the astronomy program at that institution, has consulted for the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, is a Fellow of the British interplanetary Society, is a Hayden Associate at the American Museum of Natural History and is a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics. His pioneering research in solar-sail technology has been utilized by NASA in plans for extra-solar probes and in consideration of technologies to divert Earth-threatening asteroids. He served as guest professor at the University of Siena, Italy, in 1994, has chaired many technical sessions and was honored by NYCCT as Scholar-on-Campus during the 2008-2009 academic year. In 1998, he was a winner of a SETI competition sponsored by the National Academy of Discovery Science. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 research papers and nine books, which have been cited about 400 times. One of his books, “The Starflight Handbook” (Wiley, NY, 1989), was co-authored with MIT science-writer Dr. Eugene Mallove and helped establish interstellar-propulsion studies as a sub-division of applied physics. More recent books (“Living Off the Land in Space,” Springer, NY, 2007 and “Paradise Regained”, Springer, NY, 2009) co-authored with his artist wife C Bangs and NASA manager Les Johnson, have dealt with human space habitation and utilization. His 2008 book with Les Johnson and Italian researcher Dr. Giovanni Vulpetti (“Solar Sails: A Novel Approach to Interplanetary Travel”, Springer, NY) received an excellent review in “Nature.”Most recently he has published an artist’s book with C Bangs, “Biosphere Extensions: Solar System Resources for the Earth”.